James huber



J. HUBER.

SUBMARINE MINE.l

APPLICATION FILED FEB- I2| IQIIB.'

Il l ummm l 5 I I I I I I I 5 I g I v Patented Sept. 2,1919. I

UNTTED sTATEs PATENT orrrcn.

JAMES HUBER, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 VICKERS LIMITED,0F WESTIVIINSTER, LONDON, ENGLAND.

SUBIVIARINE MINE.

Application filed February 12, 1918i.

To all fio/tom, 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES HUBER, a citiren of Switzerland, residing inthe city of Philadelphia, in the county ot' Philadelphia and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inSubmarine Mines; and I do hereby declareV the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to a submarine mine, and this application isdirected specilically to subject mattei' disclosed in my application,Serial No. 173,182, filed June 6,1917.

The primary object lies in the provision of a mine wherein the soundingball will be released from the anchor prior to the release of the anchorfrom the mine itself.

A further object of the' invention resides in so constructing the devicethat the means controlling the release of the anchor from the mine alsocontrols the release of the sounding ball from the anchor.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary elevation of a mine with a portion of theanchor broken awav and with my invention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the means for securing the anchorto the mine,

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the sounding ball.y

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the same with the cover removed, and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section disclosing the manner in which the slideis att-ached to the connecting element.

As illustrated in the drawing, the mine is secured to the anchor duringthe launching, and until it reaches a predetermined depth by meanssimilar to that described in my copending application, Serial No.173,182,

. liled J une 6, 1917.

This means includes a cylinder 4, which is pivotally mounted at 5, on anextension G of a plate 7. This plate 7 is secured to the side of theanchor 1 in any desired manner and is provided with keepers or guides 8,for the purpose which will later appear. A tubular socket member 9 isscrewed into the upper end of the cylinder 4, or is otherwise securedthereto, which socket; member acte to the and of the effi-Ee a; tietenil@ is @parable in Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 2, 1919.

Serial No. 216,815.

cylinder 4 and is provided with a rod 11 which extends upwardly throughthe bottom of the socket member 9 and into the same. This rod 11 isprovided with a reduced portion 12 and with a head 13, which head has acam face 14. A connecting element is adapted to extend into the tubularsocket 9 and is of inverted U form, having depending legs '15 on thelower ends of which are toe portions 16, which toe portions are adaptedto engage within the reduced portion 12 of the rod 11. The connectingelement is adapted to be secured to the turnbuckle 17 of the attachingmember which passes aroundl the mine. A retaining pin 18 passes throughapertures in the tubular socket member 9 and through correspondingapertures in the legs 15 of the connecting member. This pin may be ofany desired form and material, such for instance as described inconnection with the copending application. The inside diameter of thetubular member 9 is such that when the legs 15 of the connecting memberare located therein, and the toe portions engage in the reduced portion12 of the rod 11, the rod and attaching member will move in unison afterthe initial relative movement, which will occur because of the spacewhich exists between the upper edges of the toe portions 16 and the camface 14. The piston 10 is provided with an aperture through which fluidcontained in the cylinder 4 may pass from one side of the piston to theother. Thus, when the connect-ing element is disengaged'from the rod 11of the piston, the anchor will be free to move away from the mine. Thesounding ball is of the peculiar form illustrated in the drawing, and isprovided with ns 19, which cause the ball to'descend vertically throughthe water when it is released. from the anchor. This ball is furtherprovided with a. chamber 20 'which is open at its upper end and in whichthe desired length of chain 21 is contained, one end of the chain beingsecured to a hook 22 in the chamber and the other end to the anchor in`the usual manner. This chain passes upwardly through a notch 23 in theupper edge of the sounding ball. The links of the chain are so disposedthat it will be impossible for the chain to draw through the notch'because of the restricted width of the latter. A. @over 24 is engagedwith the upper end of the acuesta@ 'is ricerca;

tained in place by the resiliency of itsl flanges. Furthermore, this`cover is ol such material that, when it is detached from the soundingball, it will in'iniediately sink.

'This sounding ball is supported on the anchor by an arm 25, which has aknob 26 on the end thereof. Thetarm extends outwardly from the anchorand through an opening 27 in the adj acentside of the sounding ball. Asdisclosed in the drawing, the relative size of the knob-shaped end ofthe arm 25 and the opening 27 is such that, upon the swinging movementof the ball outwardly from the anchor,'the ball will be disengaged fromthe arm so that it will then be free to sink. swinging movement of theball may be prevented until after the mine has sunk to a predetermineddepth, I have provided the following mechanism. A slide 28 is engaged atits upper end with the connecting element above the socket member 9 bybeing passed over the upper end of said connect ing element asillustrated in Fig. 2. This slide is prevented Jfrom moving downwardlywith relation to the connecting element by projections 29 formed on thelegs of said element, and these legs are permitted to move outwardlywith relation to each other so as to free themselves from` the plungerrod 11, because of the fact that the loop connecting the slide to theconnecting element is of greater width than the distance between thelegs, so that a slight amount of play is present, as illustrated in Fig.5. This slide 28 passes through the keepers 8 which have been previouslydescribed, and downwardly below the lowermost of the same. The lower endof the slide is bent outwardly from the anchor, as illustrated in Fig.l, and passes through registering openings in a strap 30, whichencircles the lower end of the sounding ball, as illustrated in thedraw-v ing. This lower end of the slide also passes through openingswhich register with the aforementioned openings in the strap, and whichare formed in ears 3l, which ears extend from the anchor and aresecuredv thereto.

Thus, it will be seen that before the mine is launched the pin 18 willbe withdrawn and after launching, after the mine has sunk to apredetermined depth, the force which tends to separate the mine from theanchor because of the buoyancy of the former,

In order that this causes the connecting clement to move outwardly fromthe socket member 9 against the action of the fluid within the cylinder1l. Upon the initial outward movement of this connecting element, theslide 2S, which is .connected thereto will move suliiciently to withdrawits lower end from the registering openings in the straps 30 and theears 3l. This will release the strap 30 and permit the lower end of thesounding ball to swing away from the anchor and thus be released fromthe supporting arm 25. This release of the sounding ball takes placebefore the connectingelement has moved sufficiently to pass entirelybeyond the end of the socket member 9 or to be disengaged from the rod1l of the plunger 10.

What I claim is l l. The combination with a submarine mine, its anchorand its sounding ball, of a pair of separable elements for securing themine and anchor together, means for supporting the sounding ball on theanchor, means for securing the sounding ball to the anchor, including astrap which encircles the sounding ball, a slide connected to one ofsaid separable elements, and arranged to holdy the strap to the anchorprior vto the relative movement of the separable element, but releasethe strap upon such relative movement.

2. The combination with a submarine mine, its anchor and its soundingball, of means for detachably securing the mine and anchor together,means for supporting the sounding ball on the anchor, means forpreventing the swinging of the sounding ball with relation to theanchor, and means controlled by the first mentioned means for releasablysecuring the last mentioned means to the anchor.

3. The combination with a submarine mine, its anchor and its soundingball, of means for detachably securing the mine and its anchor together,means for supporting the sounding ball on the anchor, but permitting thedisengagement of the same upon a swinging movement of the sounding ball,means to prevent said swinging movement, and means controlled by thelirst mentioned means for controlling the operation of the lastmentioned means.

In testimony whereof I aliix my signature.

JAMES HUBER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

